sounds like a power surge hit it.. is it plugged into a GOOD power surge protector( not a power strip - thier nothing more than a glorified extension cord)? as you now know - pictures are invaluable! whats $60 for a good one VS loosing all your pics again and replacing a computer again?

I have my pics and music in 3-4 places. most of my important pics are uploaded to the photo websites (or good pictures i share with you guys - i have alot of how things are put together which will suck if i loose them but not the end of the world.)

then a copy of pictures music and documents are on a 2nd harddrive in the PC that doesnt contain the operating system. Then i have a external harddrive that a backup gets saved to every week. If im gone for a long time i can easily disconnect and put in the fireproof/water proof safe. I doubt a tornado is going to run off with that safe....

Some pics i actually have developed (walgreens usually runs a special - 100 4x6 prints for like $15) so thats a way to "back up" pictures... weird to think developing a picture is technically a way to do a backup of it haha

No, I had a problem with the computer coming back up the last time I brought it it the repair shop. It would not turn on when I got home. I called a computer expert in Virginia, he said it was fixing to go out. The only the he said was to turn it off over night and it may come back up. Which it did and stayed on until the power outage. I have a good power serge protector, that seems to work fine, plenty of wire protectors. Thanks Shelby, Sacramento

Ahh yea, sounds like computer went belly up... yea have plenty of backups is about all you can do. I helped clean up a coworkers house that got leveled by a tornado (everyone was perfectly safe) - only found 4 actual pictures of their 9 year old daughter and what they happened to have on thier phones or on facebook. Computer was found but unrecoverable. I found part of a picture frame that had one of the pics half burried in the cornfield. Luckilly relatives had alot of other pictures they made copies from.